Federal wildlife officials are investigating an incident at Edgartown Great Pond after local conservationists found a flightless piping plover chick with two fractured legs that later had to be euthanized.
Officials from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a federal agency that oversees the management of conservation areas, are now searching for witnesses in the case, according to Island conservationists, who said they believe it was a malicious act.
“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service does not discuss any pending investigation or whether or not an investigation is under way,” a spokesperson from the agency said in an email to The Times.
The chick, an 11-day old piping plover, was in a restricted area of the shoreline and was found injured in a human footprint in the damp sand. It is a violation of the federal Endangered Species Act and the state Endangered Species Act to harm protected species, although language of the federal rule is currently under reconsideration. The footprints of the person, who allegedly stepped on the chick, pivoted quickly from the scene, according to rangers at BioDiversity Works, the organization that monitors the shorebird habitat.
The direction of the human footprints is the reason the rangers believed the act was malicious by the perpetrator. It was also unlikely, due to signage and the string that blocked the area off, that someone entered without realizing it, according to BioDiversity Works.
The director of BioDiversity Works, Luanne Johnson, said she reached out to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to open an investigation.
Johnson said the footprint tracks and the sustained injuries of the chick were “very suspicious.”
“It’s hard to imagine what would make someone go inside the fencing, when there’s plenty of areas not posted. You know, plenty of areas that are open for people to recreate out there,” Johnson said in an interview with The Times.
The chick was hatched from a nest where two piping plovers courted each other a few weeks prior. It’s one of many protected areas for shorebirds on the Island, where a line of string and signs alert beachgoers to the presence of the endangered bird species and their mating grounds. And safety parameters are also set up in areas where young piping plovers are found, like at the Tashmoo Beach parking area recently.
Piping plovers are a federally and state-threatened species of shorebird due to habitat loss, predators, and human disturbance. On the Island, conservation efforts to protect the small, sand-colored birds with black beaks and accents and white bellies have helped recover their populations to nearly “normal” numbers, according to Johnson, who’s monitored piping plovers on the Island since 1992. That year, Johnson monitored 12 mating pairs. In 2025, she said she monitored 104 mating pairs of plovers. Johnson said this is directly because of the conservation efforts and ongoing protection of the species.
“Our team monitors nesting piping plovers at least three times a week,” Johnson said. On the day when the piping plover chick was discovered, the BioDiversity Works rangers were checking on the mother of the chick. The rangers had documented that the female adult bird was missing on Thursday, July 16, which Johnson said is not unusual since a female piping plover occasionally leaves the male to raise the chicks.
The rangers were searching for the adult female shorebird on Friday, July 17 when they discovered the injured chick. They brought the 11-day old chick to a local veterinarian, who told them euthanization was the most humane path forward. The veterinarian also disclosed that the bird was dehydrated.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is actively seeking the person who allegedly stepped on the piping plover chick, Johnson said. And the incident has put the continued protection of these habitats at top of mind for Johnson. It’s the birds’ home, she said, and humans are the guests. She added that she hopes people respect this going forward.
“These birds rely on beach habitat for their survival. It’s their home. The only place they can nest is on barrier beaches or sand and gravel. It’s what they’re built to do. They’ve been doing so for thousands of years,” Johnson said. “It’s just that we humans value that habitat for recreation. And so when you put it in that context, it’s their home and we’re recreating there.”